Golf Outing Pointers - Participant Experience

In the first of our two part series on charity golf outings, we focused on leveraging sponsorship opportunities to lower your costs and increase the funds you raise.  In this post we’ll turn our attention to the golfers.

Keeping the Fun in Fundraising
Participants sign up for a fun day out of the office for a great cause.  As you build your golf outing from start to finish, make it easy on your guests.  Keep your tournament logistics straight forward, making things like the format, rules, and parings as simple to follow as possible.   Print up any pertinent information and place it in the golf carts.  Keep your guests relaxed and having fun with on-course contests and games, well-paired foursomes, and regularly appearing beverage cart.  Remember that you are asking golfers to open their wallets all day, starting with the entry fee, so be sure to focus on adding value for them without increasing your costs.

Course amenities – have the driving range and practice green open for your guests for the day.

Celebrity - station your organization's 'celebrities' around the course to host games like blackjack and socialize with guests.  If your pool of celebrity includes a top notch golfer, position them at one of the more difficult holes where they can offer to sub-in and take each foursome's first drive.

Mulligans – a mulligan is essentially a ‘do over,’ these can be sold at registration, which makes the day a little more relaxed for your golfers and adds easy donations to your tally.  You’ll need to decide if you will set a limit for how many each golfer can have, discuss this with your course.  Many groups offer balloons or rolls of lifesavers to represent the mulligan. Balloons add a spot of color to the festivities, but lifesavers have a higher perceived value for your golfers.  This is another great idea for sponsors to feature their logos and keep your costs down!

Packaging – Offer a package deal to early entrants with a wrist band purchase which could include raffle tickets, mulligans and contest entry for a set (reduced) price.

Details that Matter

• First tee gifts – these are another opportunity for to add value for your golfers and for your sponsors to get visibility.  First tee gifts could be golf shirts, windshirts, or other golf related items.  A tournament kit is a great way to package several items together and offers added value.  Our kits are at a price point comparable to or below most golf shirts and can have a different sponsor logo on each item in the kit.  Visit our store for tournament kits and a few out of the box ideas.   

• Gift bags – Packaging is an important detail that adds value to your golfer gifts and is a perfect branding opportunity both for your organization and your sponsors.  If you’re gifting golf shirts, put them in a bag – your staff and participants will appreciate the simplicity of distribution.  Put your outing logo and a sponsor logo on the bags, get your sponsor to split the cost with you!  If you’re gifting smaller items, think creatively and package them in an insulated tumbler – like our tournament kit – or a branded shoe bag.   Some gifts simply won’t fit in a bag or could be used as packaging themselves, like a small cooler.  In this case, offer your sponsors the chance to include a coupon or branded giveaway in a registration bag, or right in your gift item.

With a little creativity and good planning, you’ll have a successful outing to which golfers and sponsors will be clamoring to return next year!  Don’t forget to download our tournament timeline checklist.  You can also visit our online specialty shop to purchase your golfer gifts.  Sky High Marketing is ready to help you put your golf event on the map, and raise more cash for your cause than ever before.  Get started today!